Hey Grinders, how did you do on your writing goal? Did you crush it? Maybe you need to raise the bar a little higher. Did you struggle and even miss some days? Don't crush yourself over it, lower your goal a bit and try again. There is no secret recipe or magic spell that gets you there, you have to write one word at a time, and do it today, tomorrow, and the day after and so on. I know that sounds logical, even stupid simple, but I am still learning how to get motivated, put my butt in the chair and write. Sometimes you have to celebrate the little wins, such as today, for me, I have written 335 days straight without missing a day.
My first challenge is to tell you that you need to celebrate and reward yourself. If you haven't written anything in a while, that's fine, but instead of feeling guilty about lost time, celebrate your first 7 days of writing straight, and if you miss a day, celebrate your 7th day anyway. It doesn't have to be a big treat, in fact it works better when it's something small like getting your favorite drink or eating a piece of chocolate or listening to your favorite music or tuning into your favorite show. Just do it and enjoy it because you worked hard to earn it. And then raise your goal a little and plan what you will do to reward yourself when you get there.
Done celebrating? Okay good. It's time to learn how to write faster, yes the holy grail of writing. I am going to give you two simple steps to start with just to show how simplicity can help you up your word count in a hurry. All you will need is your preferred writing tool (computer, pen and paper, typewriter etc.), a timer (cell phone, watch, baking time etc.) and a note taking tool (sticky note, scrap paper, wordpad on the pc etc.).
Now take your note taking method and set your timer for 5 minutes. I want you to think of a scene in your story, it can be one from your up coming NaNo project or anything else you are working on and I want you to write down as much as possible in the five minutes detailing everything you know about that scene. It can be everything from the names of characters in the scene, what happens, what you aren't sure about, describe the setting or detail a character and so forth. And write or type with a fury for that 5 minutes and stop. Now write.
When you are finished take those notes and read them over. You don't have to change or edit anything, just glance over everything you wrote and then put it away. Now take your preferred writing instruments and grab that timer again. Set the timer for 20 minutes, of course you can go longer, but set it for at least 20 and set the timer off to the side or turn it upside down so you cannot be tempted easily to glance at it. Now we're ready to push ourselves.
Now write, scribble, or type as fast as you can. The trick is not to slow up, but to try and push yourself to your absolute limit. Don't worry about spelling, grammar (yes even commas) or if it makes sense. Just write as fast as you can and don't stop moving your hands until the timer stops. And when the timer rings or buzzes, stop it and stop writing. Count your words and find your pace and then write it down.
How did you compare to your previous pace? Was it the same? Faster? How much faster? Tell me about it in the comments, be proud to share your fury of words. Let the community know what you were able to do today and save it, because you will need it later to see how much you improved after your 7th day celebration.
And never forget, keep grinding out your words.
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